WASHINGTON: More than 670,000 customers in the United States as far west as New Mexico were without electricity and almost 10,000 flights were cancelled on Sunday (Jan 25) ahead of a monster winter storm that threatened to paralyse eastern states with heavy snowfall.
Forecasters said snow, sleet, freezing rain and dangerously frigid temperatures would sweep the eastern two-thirds of the nation on Sunday and into the week.
Calling the storms “historic”, President Donald Trump on Saturday approved federal emergency disaster declarations in South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, and West Virginia.
“We will continue to monitor, and stay in touch with all States in the path of this storm. Stay Safe, and Stay Warm,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have declared weather emergencies, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, at a news conference on Saturday, warned Americans to take precautions.
“It’s going to be very, very cold,” Noem said. “So we’d encourage everybody to stock up on fuel, stock up on food, and we will get through this together.”
“We have utility crews that are working to restore that as quick as possible,” Noem added.
The number of outages continued to rise. As of 8.30am Eastern Standard Time (1pm GMT) on Sunday, more than 670,000 US customers were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with more than 100,000 each in Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana. Other states affected included Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and New Mexico.